"Small Brands", Big Owners

Small Brands, Big Owners

What have organic brands Health Valley (cereals), Bearitos (corn chips), Bread Shop (granola) and Celestial Seasonings (tea) have in common? These apparently independent companies are all owned by the Hain Celestial Group

Even though Hain Celestial is an organic giant in its own right, it has even bigger owners. According to research by Paul Glover and Carole Resnick of the Greenstar Food Coop (Ithaca, New York) the company's investors include Philip Morris, Monsanto, Citigroup, Exxon-Mobil, Wal-Mart and aerospace military contractor Lockheed Martin. And in September 1999 the H. J. Heinz food conglomerate bought a 20% stake in Hain Celestial.

Hain Celestial is by no means a unique case:

* Cascadian Farms is a subsidiary of Small Planet Foods, which is a division of agribusiness colossus General Mills. And General Mill's main shareholders include Philip Morris, Exxon-Mobil, General Electric, Chevron, Nike, McDonald's, Monsanto, Dupont, Dow Chemical and PepsiCo.

* Silk Soy Drink is part of the White Wave corporation, itself a Dean Foods subsidiary. And according to Glover and Resnick, Dean Foods' main investors include Microsoft, General Electric, Citigroup, Pfizer, Philip Morris, Exxon-Mobil, Coca Cola, Wal-Mart, PepsiCo and Home Depot.

* Odwalla, makers of organic orange juice, is owned by Minute Maid, which is in turn a division of Coca Cola.

* Boca Burger is owned by Kraft, which is part of Philip Morris.

* Arrowhead Water and Poland Spring Water, are Nestle subsidiaries.

* Organic Cow, founded by small New England organic dairy farmers, is now part of the Colorado-based Horizon, whose sales just topped $200 million annually and which controls 70% of the American organic milk market . Horizon Holding company was itself was acquired by the Dean Foods conglomerate in 2003.

Where does your food come from?

That loaf of Sara Lee bread on the grocery shelf in San Jose was made with flour from U.S. wheat. But the Illinois-based food giant uses honey and vitamin supplements from China.

While Paul Newman's daughter uses California figs in cookies made by her Aptos organic food company, she turns to Mexico and Austria for other ingredients.

And even though a Procter & Gamble spokeswoman described Crest toothpaste "as a truly American product," it uses additives from China and Finland.

Recent reports of tainted imports from China have focused new attention on a little-known trend: In today's global economy, more food items are being produced in this country with some ingredients from other lands. But the FDA inspects less than 1 percent of all food imports - and that means consumers must trust food makers to guarantee the safety of their products.

"It's not just the stuff that says `Made in China.' It's the stuff in the stuff that says `Made in the USA,' " said Elisa Odabashian of Consumers Union, a non-profit consumer advocacy group that publishes Consumer Reports magazine. "We're importing more and more of our food and we're inspecting almost none of it."

William Hubbard, a former Food and Drug Administration associate commissioner who is advocating for a beefed-up food safety system in the United States, agreed.

"It's not which foods contain these ingredients, but which foods don't contain them," he said.

You may not know it from the label. Food makers aren't required to disclose the source of what goes into most products.

Some major food makers won't even talk about it. Campbell's and Kraft use ingredients from around the world, although representatives there refused to say which countries supply them.

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Organic Food, with a Side of Pesticides

In 2005, China's organic food exports totaled $350 million--more than double compared to the year before. But questions about whether or not its really organic is on the rise.

This is especially true after the numerous, recent scandals over tainted food products, deadly pet food ingredients, toxic toothpaste and fake medicines made in China.

Fraud is a widespread problem, and China's organic food market is chaotic, say organic farm owners. According to Liu Lei, secretary of the Association of Green Development (a Chinese trade group for organic farmers), many small companies sell produce grown with pesticides and chemical fertilizers as organic.

Since true organic produce does not travel well, most of the fresh fruits and vegetables are sold to closer markets, such as Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan. But plenty of it still ends up on your food plate here in the United States.

Organic soybeans, rice and other grains, frozen vegetables, and fruit concentrates are commonly imported from China.

Wal-Mart got caught in the mislabeled organic scam last year, after a surprise inspection revealed their "organic" vegetables were tainted with pesticides. Since then Wal-Mart's organic standards have come under scrutiny again for a variety of mislabeled "organic" food products.

Some American companies are now beginning to take charge of their own organic certification, dispatching their own people to verify the farming and manufacturing practices of their Chinese producers.
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Chinese Imports Highlight Woeful State of Consumer Safety by Ralph Nader

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After years of warnings about farm-raised seafood imports from the Chinese mainland, the FDA’s Dr. David Acheson, in charge of food protection, said: “There’s been a continued pattern of violations with no signs of abatement.” So, finally, the FDA in late June blocked the sale of shrimp, frozen eel, catfish, basa and dace. The reasons included carcinogens and too many antibiotic residues.

Crowded into ponds, farmed Chinese fish are breeding grounds for disease, lice and contaminated water. So heavy doses of antibiotics and other food additives-many illegal in the U.S.-are applied. China is a major exporter of seafood to the U.S. We import 80% of all our seafood.

In recent weeks, disclosures of hundreds of thousands of defective tires (tread separation problems), lead-coated toys, contaminated toothpaste and pet food (which destroyed about 6000 pets) have raised the profile of a situation which is likely to get worse.

China produces products in a horrifically polluted environment-of the water, air and soil. Industrial chemicals, farm run-offs, mountains of toxic waste are alarming Beijing for both domestic consumption as well as foreign trade reasons. Despite loud proclamations of forthcoming action, the Chinese government has waited too long, allowed too much corruption and lax enforcement, and condoned a huge industry in exported counterfeit goods where anything goes.

Although country-of-origin legislation passed Congress in 2002, Mr. Bush-obsessed by the costly Iraq war and indentured to large corporate importers-did not push his Republicans in Congress to provide funds for enforcement. Instead, the president has signed into law delays in the labeling rule. Therefore, except for the required labeling of seafood from foreign countries (consumers take note), all other food in your supermarket is not required to have a label of the country that exported it. It is the majority Democrats’ job now to compel mandatory labeling of all imported foods.

China is the largest apple juice exporter in the world. Apple juice from China is pouring into the United States. Is there anything left that cannot be imported into what was once the greatest food exporter the world has ever seen?

It gets worse. The U.S. is on the verge of becoming a net food importer!

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China Quietly Muscles In on the "Organic" Food Market

Upscale grocery chains like Trader Joe's and Whole Foods now import popular organic snacks such as edamame and canned staples such as kidney beans from China. That has made some buyers looking for pristine, all-natural food a bit skittish.

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Ms. Anagnoson said she doubts that produce grown in China is truly organic, regardless of the label. "It's really hard to grow something organic in a country that really abuses pesticides and where DDT is used," she said.

Organic produce imported from China carries the U.S. Department of Agriculture's organic logo and is certified by private firms authorized to approve use of the label. However, consumers who view that as a guarantee that the produce is pesticide-free are mistaken. The federal rules establishing the organic certification do not include routine testing for pesticide contamination.